Rookie photographer question....

Hello... I'm so glad I found this forum.... I think. I hope someone can help me out.
Today I just bought a Sony DSC-F828. I am planning on doing some sports photos. I'm having a bit of a problem understanding the shutter speed settings. It say for action type photos set the shutter speed high. It doesn't say how high.... just high. I've tried some experiments and I still get the "blurring" effect with any motion. Any suggestions for a rookie? I sure would appreciate it.
Thank you :shock:

Hi Joe.... thank you. I didn't imagine such a quick reply! This is wonderful... I am shooting boxing from ringside. So, I guess I will try 1/1000 and see what happens. The lighting is very good. We are not allowed to use a flash for obvious reasons.
I'll let you know how I make out. I have 12 bouts to shoot tomorrow night.
Thanks again.

1/1000 may be a little fast since you aren't using flash. Ringside lighting isn't going to be as bright as you think but should be decent enough.

Remember that film exposes by light striking it. There are 3 conditions that effect it.
1. How bright is the subject, or how much light is there to enter the camera.
2. What's the aperature? In other words how big is the hole in which you are letting light thru? The bigger the hole the more light can enter during a given time.
3. How long are you leaving the shutter open. The longer you leave it open the more light you let in.

1/1000 is a very VERY short time. Is there enough light to compensate? You will need really bright lights to get the amount of light you need to expose the film properly. I would agree with wwjoeld and go with a shutter speed of 1/250-500. But then you also need to make sure you have the appropriate aperature. I just looked up your camera and it should have a decent light meter in it...so what I would do is set the dial to "S" (shutter priority). Then set the shutter to 1/500. Then the camera will automatically set the aperature based on what light reading it takes. YOu also have a continuous shooting mode that will take a bunch of pics in a row....I'd learn about that too.